Antarctica, Ice Phoenix Valley...
The sad, longing Song coursed through the wind and reverberated for miles around; the forlorn melody of the Ice Phoenix Emperor held here for so many centuries had not changed. The wind still cut like razors, and the cold was sharp enough to freeze an average human being solid in one breath.
Magic swirled around me in the purity of the cold, especially with all the Dark Mana being consumed by Vivic Braziers. I took a deep breath that should have frozen my lungs solid, enjoying the incredible clarity of thought such a level of cold brought to me.
-Ice Phoenix Emperor, it will be time soon. This one has come to take the Lovelorn Seed,- I /sent down to the Imperial Avian in Her nest below.
There was not the slightest acknowledgement or betrayal of Her awareness of me, but there was no doubt She knew I was there.
I glided down the slope, noting the Wurm tasked to watch over Her was still dozing, its nostrils exposed, and three Braziers had been clustered together for it to inhale. Its attention naturally suffered for how comfortable its slumber was, and it had not the slightest idea I was here.
The carven ice had many holes, made with sublime artistry and skill, the sad keening Song nearly overwhelming this close as the howling winds of the Antarctic blew through them ceaselessly.
In the heart of them, keening that Song, was the Lovelorn Seed, its physical embodiment.
The sadness of the Song was enough to shake the soul of most sapient creatures. Only something without emotions, like the Wurm below, could endure its Song of loss and longing.
As it was a thing of Air, not Ice, very few of Ice Emperor’s vassals could withstand it, and so were subtly encouraged to stay away from here. Even Ice Emperor Himself, unaware of its presence and effects, did not like coming here, as He began to sympathize with His prisoner.
Ice Phoenix Emperor was nothing if not very meticulous and crafty in Her imprisonment. Even a High Emperor Dragon could make no moves upon Her while wracked with empathy and guilt for His part in Her isolation.
Grief could be very empowering!
I very, very carefully began to mesh the Air Notes of the Sublime Chord into the Song that reverberated through the Seed, instantly gaining its recognition and interest. The Lovelorn Song thrummed into the wind, and even the Wurm below began to ruffle as Threnodic Magic bypassed its immunity to emotions, inflicting upon it sensations it had never felt before.
The Lovelorn Seed floated out of its chamber to my hands, a thing of hurricane winds wrapped so tightly it was solid, pulsing and beating in a sad, slow rhythm.
“Hope,” I Whispered to it.
The winds seemed to bloom around us as the Lovelorn Song reached its end and apex, finding that which it longed for and had awaited all this time. In real terms, the freedom of Ice Phoenix Emperor was coming!
The Lovelorn Seed slid into my grasp, and I swirled away. Down below in the Valley, the Polar Wurm would have cried in its sleep, were it capable of doing so... and crystalline Tears dripped upon a nest woven of an Ice Rose in silent joy of an imprisonment soon to end.
---
I materialized out of the Teleport, reaching down into the ground and beckoning to the Crystalheart Diamond Saltseed below with a series of Sublime Notes. The ground split open to allow the glittering crystalline matrix to rise up to me, coming to rest in my hand opposite the swirling endless motion and chiming of the Lovelorn Seed.
I could sense instant hostility and rivalry between the spirits of the two Seeds, opposed in nature as they were.
“Shush,” I calmed them both gently. “You are two parts of a greater whole. I will show you a greater world...”
I took another step, two Heaven Seeds in my hands, in excess of a billion dollars worth of Elemental power in my grasp, and I was away.
---
He was in His Nest, and naturally sensed me arrive, broadcasting it before me as I did. I materialized on the Seal there, and He regarded me silently for a moment, studying the two Heaven Seeds, one Singing, one Chiming, in my grasp.
“IT HAS BEEN WAITING FOR YOU,” He murmured, and the top to his Pyramid opened up, displaying the Seeds growing within.
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Silver-violet electricity crackled up, and the Sublime Chord rose all around me as I spread my celeste Wings and flitted over there to greet the Thunderheart Heaven Seed as it rose from its place to meet me, rumbling with fervor and defiance towards all that would stop it.
Even a Lightning Heaven Seed had to pause as it faced two other Heaven Seeds, however, startled at their presence.
And then the Sublime Chord changed, the Lightning bent, and it began to dance between them.
I let the Earth and Air Seeds go, and hesitantly, they began to spin around the Seed of Lightning. Voltage began to crackle between them, somehow joining Chime and Song, unifying them into a greater whole, strengthening them, melding them into something greater than all they were before.
I sat down, the Sublime Chord rising, Heavenly Magic joining the Chorus.
“Of the Virtues of Heaven, I join them to you,” I told the trembling Seeds as they danced before me. “Hope,” I told the Lovelorn Seed, Rainbow Lights shooting ecstatically through its winds in a culmination of its purpose. “Truth,” I told the Crystalheart Diamond Saltseed, and its Chiming changed as Silver flashed through it, what it was being what it was. “And Valor,” I told the Thunderheart Seed, which pulsed and swelled with Golden glory, thrumming with all the power and courage of the ages behind it, ready to defy the world!
Silver, Rainbow, and Gold now joined the violet dance of the Lightning joining all three Heaven Seeds. I opened my Matrix, and the Firefrost Luan Seeds billowed forth in their own dance of Ice and Flame, gently sweeping the three Heaven Seeds within with them.
A glorious Rainbow Seal a mile wide stamped itself across the sky, sweeping the clouds into its mass as it spun around. Below it, a great Silver Sign arose on the Nest and the mountain, the Domains of Air and Earth Seeds rising up with them.
Lightning arced between them, Silver and Rainbow-violet meeting in a point of Golden invincibility and will, taking them and bringing them together as they would not naturally.
“Ice Phoenix Emperor, Fire Phoenix Emperor, it is time,” I Sent to them.
I opened a Portal to the Broom Closet, and was gone.
---
I appeared in the air over the Pyramid there. While they couldn’t carve Blocks for the Pyramid, the Many-Tailed Silver Foxes were fully capable of making perches about the place, and had done so to accommodate themselves and some of the smaller Emperors who might like to perch thereon.
The ones resting there felt the coming of Imperial Presences, and winked out of there to a respectful mile away instantly. Every Human in the place naturally felt them, too, and Humans and Beasts turned and bowed to the Great Beasts arriving.
Thunderbird Emperor opened His own Portal far above me, sweeping into the Broom Closet with a great if downtoned sweep of His Aura. The Seals that had accompanied me at His Nest actually formed below him, while His attendant Stormcrown Eagles quickly zipped through after the magnificent form of their Emperor to watch what was going to happen.
Four more Portals winked up below me around the Pyramid. While one could say I Summoned them if you were to be rude, what I’d done was start the Portal and given them a target, and they all had used their own powers to leverage them open.
Two Portals burned through space, and two others froze space open. Opposite one another by Elements, the Phoenix and Luan Emperors of Fire and Ice stepped through into the Broom Closet on all four sides of the Pyramid here.
With Fire Phoenix Emperor came a great Vine, a bushy nettle of burning thorns and blazing hot blossoms of terrifying beauty. The Golden Heavenly Sun Rose Emperor accompanied the Phoenix through the Portal, reaching out to touch the seeking vines of its progeny coiled up around the Pyramid.
Next to them, Ice Phoenix stepped regally through the frozen Portal from Her Nest in the Antarctic, the low keening of the lessened Song behind Her carrying with Her. The Crystal Starsilver Moon Rose Emperor poured through after Her, also reaching out to its progeny and its fiery counterpart.
Massive Rose vines meshed and flowed together, sweeping around the Pyramid and encapsulating it in flowers of supernatural beauty and power.
Fire and Ice Luan Emperors bowed to the Phoenixes and surveyed the Roses with appreciation for what they were, before all eyes turned up to me, sitting there in the sky between Seals of Heaven and Earth, Heavenly Lightning connecting both and blazing about me.
“This one brings down the Blessings of the Sun, Moon, and Stars upon the Fire and the Ice,” I told them, and the artificial sky opened up to a swirling, nebula-filled Heaven that had likely never existed before this moment.
Blessing Magic descended in a starfall of glory and virtuous reward, and even the Avian Emperors bowed their heads to receive it.
All my magic was of Fire, Frost, and Good. I could also make it Lightning and Thunder if needed. Connected by the Thunderheart Seed and three Words of Creation, the power of the Air and Earth Magic of my other Heaven Seeds also thrummed in the spell, whilst the conjoined Firefrost Domains of my Firefrost Seeds and the Emperors below me meshed effortlessly, turning this place into a node of fantastic, primal power.
It was enough power for the Blessings of a Sage to affect even a True Emperor. I was not Queen Diana, who had a Crown that could channel the will of the all the British Islands into such an effect and with great focus, Bless Leviathan, as was the right of her Liege.
No, this was all Seeds and pure power enhancing one another.
As I did this, I felt another power rising up from below.
The Blessing Magic of the Phoenixes, returning this favor to me!
I instantly grasped something important. “Your Imperial Majesties, enhance Your Fire and Ice with the Blessing of the Sun, but enhance Your Blessing and Healing Elements with the Blessing of the Moon!” I told them urgently.
There was only the slightest pause before they realized what that would mean.
As the Blessing of the Sun, Moon, and Stars came down, the Blessing of the Phoenixes came up. Everything swirled and meshed, and the two effects began to feed into one another.
Because of my Firefrost Seed, Ice and Fire were as one, so I could get a Blessing on both those Elements. That was a +150% boost to those Elements, the magic of the Blessing swirling and harmonizing in the Sublime Chord and Heavenly Magic, none of it being allowed to drain away as it joined the dance.
Except... it kept coming!